The Russia-China Axis. Douglas E. Schoen

for the U.S., then, is not whether it can launch effective attacks, but whether it can defend itself against them. For all the worries that Americans and their political leaders have about protecting the country against military or terrorist attacks, an invisible and virtual enemy could inflict far more extensive damage on the nation. The ball here, as elsewhere, is in America’s court: The intentions and behavior of its two primary adversaries could not be more consistent, confrontational, or transparent. It is past time that Washington got serious about the looming cyber catastrophe.

      THE VULNERABILITY

      Richard Clarke must be accustomed, by now, to giving dire warnings—and to being ignored until it is either too late or precariously close to being so. The man who spent the years before 9/11 warning, mostly in vain, about the threat posed by al-Qaeda eventually turned his attentions to cyberspace. In 2010, his book Cyber War, written with Robert Knake, described potential attacks of unimaginable scope, complexity, and destructiveness and laid out how the U.S. remains undefended. And, as he had in the years before 9/11, he sketched a graphic scenario: